Soft Close Doors....WHY??

[midwest 340xi 6sp]

Someone please explain to me the value of this meaningless option please...What problem is it solving and for whom??

My wife has it on her E70 35i and I just don't get it

[phantomac2]

Other premium brands have it, so BMW has it, too.

That's the only reason.

imho.

[JS919]

Can anyone explain to me OP's meaningless questions? What problem is it solving and for whom??

[jlstyle]

Well I guess you can appreciate it once you age and no longer have the enough strength to close the door properly, or have a baby who wakes up on every little noise.

[1230vani]

Originally Posted by jlstyle

Well I guess you can appreciate it once you age and no longer have the enough strength to close the door properly, or have a baby who wakes up on every little noise.

, valid!

[kip1]

I honestly think this option is for cars that have chauffeurs, so you don't need to slam the door once the people are inside.

[Zipforia]

No. Not true. My chauffeur still slams the door. Gotta fire him.

Z.

[Ggluck3]

Lol

[HansRobert]

I'd like to know how to get comfort access without getting soft close doors, which may be nice but not desirable to me!

[jlee]

I love soft close doors. It's like the heated steering wheel, one of those features you get so used to. I have kids and they generally don't close the doors hard enough (because I told them to stop slamming them) and the soft door catch takes over. It's awesome.

Heated steering wheel too.
Jeff

[MysticBlue]

I think the frustration with some is that this "option" is not really an option the way it's packaged with the executive package. I understand some have a use for it. Great. It should be an option. Personally, I have no use for it, and I would prefer to save the cost, weight, and complexity of yet another something to break. But I'll have to get it because of some of the other things I want that will only come with the executive package.

[Baunton]

Originally Posted by Zipforia

No. Not true. My chauffeur still slams the door. Gotta fire him.

Z.

[chrisny]

This isn't mine (google image), but this is what they're useful for.. Far from useless if you have any of these, even with bigger ones:

[SpeedN8]

Originally Posted by chrisny

This isn't mine (google image), but this is what they're useful for.. Far from useless if you have any of these, even with bigger ones:

I came here to say this as well. My wife and I love soft close doors after having our first child!

[BradATL]

Originally Posted by Midwest X6

Someone please explain to me the value of this meaningless option please...What problem is it solving and for whom??

My wife has it on her E70 35i and I just don't get it

Agree. I was forced to get this feature as part of the premium package. Utterly worthless to me. For parents of babies, I guess it allows you to shut the doors without waking the baby so maybe it's worth it for those parents.

[midwest 340xi 6sp]

Originally Posted by chrisny

This isn't mine (google image), but this is what they're useful for.. Far from useless if you have any of these, even with bigger ones:

I guess if you new mommies and daddies find value in it great. But I'll bet you wouldn't pay extra for it if they itemized it out for you and gave you a choice?

IMO soft close doors are THE ICON for useless complexity being added to cars these days

[chrisny]

Originally Posted by Midwest X6

I guess if you new mommies and daddies find value in it great. But I'll bet you wouldn't pay extra for it if they itemized it out for you and gave you a choice?

IMO soft close doors are THE ICON for useless complexity being added to cars these days

Wrong, I would pay for it every time. It's sort of funny actually, the opposite, for me, of what you're saying. I had no intention of getting it, but decided we needed the comfort access and we were already paying for leather so it wasn't that big of a deal to get the premium package. I debated a little and was convinced by other members it would be very valuable with kids. So I originally was annoyed as you are (though far less passionately ), but now that I have them, I would get them again regardless of whether they're in a package or a stand alone option. So being forced to consider them because of the premium package actually benefited me in this case.

Overall though, I agree that the soft close doors, as well as comfort access, should both be stand alone options on every BMW.

But still, have to question your fury of hatred lol. They may not be the most essential option in the world, but they are very useful just the same and this is a luxury brand not an econo box. By definition, many of the features are unnecessary.. I suppose you could argue all if it is 'useless complexity,' if you just don't agree with modern luxuries, but then why are you buying a BMW not an econoline van with roll-up windows?

Either way, they are pretty straight forward and change nothing for people that still want to slam the doors .

[Armen383]

Originally Posted by chrisny

Overall though, I agree that the soft close doors, as well as comfort access, should both be stand alone options on every BMW.

They are in EU Just not in US. But look on the bright side... where we pay $150k equiv. in EUR in Europe, you pay just half of that for the same car/options fitted in US. Enjoy what you have.

[Windy City]

I thought it was unnecessary at time of order too.

But after having it on my X5, and X6 M, I really like it!

[midwest 340xi 6sp]

Originally Posted by chrisny

Wrong, I would pay for it every time. It's sort of funny actually, the opposite, for me, of what you're saying. I had no intention of getting it, but decided we needed the comfort access and we were already paying for leather so it wasn't that big of a deal to get the premium package. I debated a little and was convinced by other members it would be very valuable with kids. So I originally was annoyed as you are (though far less passionately ), but now that I have them, I would get them again regardless of whether they're in a package or a stand alone option. So being forced to consider them because of the premium package actually benefited me in this case.

Overall though, I agree that the soft close doors, as well as comfort access, should both be stand alone options on every BMW.

But still, have to question your fury of hatred lol. They may not be the most essential option in the world, but they are very useful just the same and this is a luxury brand not an econo box. By definition, many of the features are unnecessary.. I suppose you could argue all if it is 'useless complexity,' if you just don't agree with modern luxuries, but then why are you buying a BMW not an econoline van with roll-up windows?

Either way, they are pretty straight forward and change nothing for people that still want to slam the doors .

I'm actually far less passionate about the issue than I may have come across starting the thread...In my world, through my lens it's a useless option - but if others find it pleasing - please enjoy

[MattUK]

KIDS!

[NPickles]

Originally Posted by Armen383

They are in EU Just not in US. But look on the bright side... where we pay $150k equiv. in EUR in Europe, you pay just half of that for the same car/options fitted in US. Enjoy what you have.

Not in the UK they're not, I had to pay £765 extra for Comfort Access and Soft Close Doors would have been an additional £485 had I chosen that option. And they are not available in any packages here either.

I agree that at least comfort access should be completely standard on a BMW as it is seemingly standard on just about any car these days. I didn't believe that when I originally enquired about an F15 back in January that heated front seats were an optional extra, only becoming standard from April 2014 production. Having had a Lexus RX450h for the last 4 years which comes fully loaded with just about everything you can think of it was a bit of a shock seeing how long the BMW options list was.